When one of my blogger friends, Janelle, saw how much I was getting into doing my nails, she contacted me to see if I had ever tried Jamberry Nail Wraps before. I know of Janelle through her food blog, Num’s the Word, but it turns out she is also a Jamberry consultant. I told her that I had recently seen the nail wraps floating around the internet (especially on Pinterest), but that I had never tried them myself. She asked if I wanted to try them out for a test run and offer a Jamberry Nail Wraps Review here on the blog. I enthusiastically accepted!

UPDATE SINCE ORIGINALLY POSTING REVIEW: Because of how much I loved Jamberry nail wraps, and after seeing the benefits offered by Jamberry, I decided to become an independent consultant myself. I am so very excited to be sharing this with everyone and look forward to showcasing all my fun, new manicures here on the blog. You can shop for Jamberry nail wraps on my website or learn more about joining my team!

Like I said, I had been seeing some beautiful manicures floating around Pinterest and a lot of the ones I gravitated towards incorporated Jamberry wraps. Knowing that I will NEVER be able to have fancy nail art on my hands unless someone else paints it on, I thought Jamberry wraps might be the ticket to having cute designs adorn my fingertips.

Janelle let me choose a wrap design and then sent me everything I needed to apply the wraps. I chose the Icy Boysenberry Polka Dot wraps (now retired). I thought they were so cute and I was FINALLY going to be able to have one of those popular manicures that had polka dots incorporated. It also helped that the polka dots were sparkly. I mean, c’mon!

Included in the package from Janelle, and what I do agree you would need if you were applying these wraps for yourself, were the following items:

Two other things you will need that were not included in the package, but that most everyone is going to have lying around anyways, are tweezers and the smallest pair of scissors you can find!

Tips on How to Apply Jamberry Nail Wraps from a Newbie:

After I received the package from Janelle, I laid everything out on my table, read through the directions carefully, and got started. I was a little intimidated at first, but then quickly realized it wasn’t quite as daunting a process as I originally thought. In fact, they were super easy to apply after just a bit of practice!

First you hold the sheet of nail wraps up to your nail to find one that best fits the shape and size of your nail. The plastic sheets the wraps are applied to are clear, so it makes finding the right sized wrap super easy. You just want to make sure that you choose one that is not too wide because the wrap should only be applied to nail and not any of your skin.

Then, before you begin anything else, you are going to want to prep your nails! Using the wood cuticle pusher, you will want to push back your cuticles and remove any dead skin (but do not cut your cuticles, that is a big no-no in nail care). Basically you want to get as much of the dead cuticle “skin” off your nail as applying the wraps to your cuticles, or any dead skin, will prevent them from sticking appropriately! Again, you want the wraps to touch your nails only.

After you have prepped your nails, use the alcohol wipes to remove the oils from your hands, especially the nails themselves. If you do not have any alcohol wipes, you could also use nail polish remover to clean your nails and rid them of any oils.

Taking the wrap you chose earlier, peel the end of the wrap from the plastic sheet using a pair of tweezers and cut the wrap in half {if you can tell from the pictures, the “stickers” are a long oval shape}. Each “sticker” is long enough to be used for two separate manicures, if that makes sense. You cut each “sticker” in half to create two separate nail wraps to use.

I used a pair of tweezers to peel back the curved end of the wrap and then used a pair of scissors to cut it in half {cutting while still holding the curved end with my tweezers}. You want to do the best that you can not to touch the sticky side of the wraps with your fingers as the oils from your fingers {even after using the alcohol wipes} can mess us the way the wraps bond to your nail.

Still holding the wrap with my tweezers, I then held the wrap up to the mini Jamberry heater for about 5-10 seconds.

After heating the wrap for a few seconds, you will see the wrap become pliable and that is when it is ready to be applied to your nail {side note: when reading the instructions on this part I thought, “Really, Jamberry? How am I supposed to just be able to tell that it has been heated up enough…”, but trust me, you will definitely be able to see when the wrap has become pliable and is ready to be stuck on your nail}. Also, the type of wrap you have is going to determine how long you need to heat it up. Since I had a thicker wrap with the sparkly dots, mine took a few seconds longer than the thinner wraps would. So, the official directions from Jamberry would be, “Heat your wrap between 3 and 10 seconds, depending on the type of wrap you are using.”

Carefully place the nail wrap onto your nail. I decided it would be best to stick the wrap based on the middle of my nail and then smooth it off to the sides. After you have placed the wrap on your nail smooth it out to the edges {creating a seal} with the rubber cuticle pusher. Then, trim the wrap down as close to the tip of your nail as possible using the smallest pair of scissors you have.

I say a “small pair” of scissors because I tried using a really bulky one and it went terribly. Because my scissors were too bulky, I wasn’t able to get really close to the tip of my nail when trimming the wrap and I tried to file the wraps down instead. It would have been a much better result had I just used a smaller scissors and trimmed closer to my nail.

After trimming the wrap as close to the edge of your nail tip as possible, you will want to file it down the rest of the way holding the file at a 90 degree angle when compared to your nail.

Then, hold your finger up to the heater, heat for a few additional seconds, and then run that rubber cuticle pusher along the wrap just to smooth everything down one last time {concentrating around the edges to make sure it is sealed down}.

Immediately after applying the wraps, I thought to myself, “Well, how exactly do these wear down?” I had read that the wraps could last weeks, but I quickly realized I didn’t understand how I would know when they were “done”.

Well, as you will see in the upcoming pictures, the wraps do not chip like traditional nail polish. With the wraps I had, the printed design simply wore off the ends and eventually the seal broke and they no longer stuck to my nail.

Also, because I did a terrible job with the trimming and filing {like I noted above}, the edge of the wraps were really jagged in the beginning and wore as such, so during the week as they started to curl a bit back from the nail tips, I just took the nail buffer to the ends and quickly smoothed things back down.

Removing Jamberry Nail Wraps

I took the wraps off after 14 days {yes, really, 14 days} and it was super easy! All I did was break the seal of the wrap a bit with a wooden cuticle pusher, soaked the nail in nail polish remover for about five minutes, and then the wrap literally slid right off my nail. I had read things online where some experienced the wraps wrecking their nails {causing peeling like you would experience with the removal of acrylic nails, for instance}, so I was a little nervous. But, I had no such negative impact. They came right off and didn’t damaged my nails in any way!

The following are pictures that show the progression of wear for the wraps over the 14 days that I wore them. I painted my nails with regular nail polish alongside the wraps for comparison.

And, I will be honest, I would probably not have had these sparkly polkadot wraps on all 10 fingers at one time anyways. I absolutely LOVE the aspect of being able to put nail “art” onto my nails, but I am 30 years old and I feel I am passed the age of having purple, sparkly polka dots on all 10 fingers! The ringer finger and thumb, or just one random nail having purple, sparkly polka dots? Yes, absolutely. But not all 10 at once! I will point out, though, that Jamberry does have more subtle nail art designs {including coordinating solid colors!} that I would feel comfortable rocking on all 10 fingers {and toes while I am at it}, but for this review and design, I applied the wraps to only my ringer fingers and thumbs.

Jamberry Nail Wraps Review

The one aspect about Jamberry wraps that does not necessarily work 100% right for me, personally, is applying the wraps to my thumbs. I have very square shaped nail beds on my thumbs {and thumbs only, oddly enough}. And even the widest nail wrap wouldn’t fit all the way across the bottom of my nail with the rounded end of the wrap. So, I just chose the wrap that was the closest in size in width to the sides of my thumbs and just lived with a bit of my nail showing around the bottom corners. The ring finger wraps were fine as those nails are more round-shaped at the bottom.

UPDATE SINCE ORIGINAL POSTING: I have found that if I trim the round edge of the wrap a bit (to create a square bottom edge) prior to heating and application, they fit my nail bed perfectly.

To be honest, although you could see the nail on my thumb, it didn’t really bother me. From far away {and no closer than anyone would be looking at them anyways}, it looked just fine and as if I had a perfect manicure! I guess, technically I could have used one of the largest wraps and trimmed it down around all sides to fit the shape of my nail, but that would have required extra effort that for my personal taste and aesthetics weren’t necessary. But, if you would not be able to stand that little bit of nail showing at the bottom {if you also have really square shaped nail beds}, then there is still a solution!

The thumb I have pictured is actually the first wrap I applied. As I was a bit fumbly and still a bit uncertain as to what I was doing, I did end up with a bubble in the bottom. But the rest of my wraps went on just fine after doing the first one. I didn’t have any issue with how well the wrap stayed on my nail because of the bubble. I just didn’t want the bubble there! But as you will see in the following picture, anyone looking at your nails probably wouldn’t even notice it!

Jamberry Wraps after Four Days

After four days, I was starting to see wear on the tips of the wraps. Like I mentioned above, though, I think that if I had used a smaller scissor and had not tried to file down as much of the wrap as I did, the ends wouldn’t have wore so jaggedly. But, I took that nail buffer Janelle sent me and a very fine nail file, filed the ends and buffed them out, and life was good again! And, as you can see from the pictures, my nail polish was chipping per usual. By day four, I would have wanted to start thinking about changing my nail polish as I think chips are so ugly and OBVIOUS. Whereas, even though the wraps had a bit of wear on the ends, it was in no way the eye sore that my nail polish was already becoming {and for reference, I used Nail Tek’s ridge filling base coat, two coats of an Essie nail polish, and Sally Hansen’s Gel Top Coat, so it was some premium stuff meant to make nail polish last!}

Jamberry Wraps after Eight Days

For someone that has been really loving having “pretty” nails, let me tell you that by this point in my testing I REALLY wanted to repaint my nails. I was so embarrassed of them! And although this was the check-in after eight days, the nail polish on my pointer finger actually peeled completely off after a shower on day five {so I had already been living with this nail situation for three days and I cringed every time I thought about the way that nail polish looked}.

But, as embarrassed as I was by the nail polish at this point, had my nails only had the Jamberry wraps applied, as you can see my manicure would have still looked almost flawless!

Jamberry Nail Wraps after Fourteen Days

At this point, you can probably imagine what my regular nail polish looked like.

But now maybe you are thinking, “Jen,what happened to the Jamberry wrap?”

Well, I cut the wrap. The reason I decided to take these pictures on day fourteen was that this was the day the wraps finally told me they were done. The wrap on my ring finger {pictured} had separated from the side of my nail.

Technically speaking, I could have kept wearing the wraps, even after cutting off the edge. I mean, that clean cut edge still looks far better than how unsightly the nail polish chips were.

Another reason I cut the wrap is that I didn’t want to take the picture of the wraps without cutting them as it would not have given a true look into how they were performing at this point…it would have still looked like they were fine {so if you can live with the fact they are not completely sticking to your nail on one edge, you could certainly keep on, keepin’ on with wearing them}.

But, by this point I could not take it any longer. I wanted so badly to take that nail polish off and I was anxious to see how the wraps themselves removed {and as I mentioned above, removing them went seamlessly}.

Would I buy Jamberry Wraps Again?

Yes, 100% without a doubt I will be buying Jamberry wraps in the future. There are literally hundreds of designs {over 300 to be exact} and one sheet of wraps will last for multiple manicures {used on all 10 toes and 10 fingers at once, you can get two manicures and two pedicures out of each sheet…take that one to the bank!}.

I could have very easily kept the Icy Boysenberry Wraps on my two fingers and repainted the rest as my polish chipped. Or, I could have paired the polkadot wraps with more subtle wraps {including one of the coordinating solid color wraps} and not had to worry about painting my nails for a couple of weeks! Especially for the upcoming holiday season, and all of the traveling involved, this will come in very “handy” {pun intended there, folks!}

I am really excited to try a few of the other designs soon!

Buy Jamberry Nail Wraps for Yourself

Literally anyone can use these wraps, they really are pretty easy to apply!

These wraps would make great stocking stuffers or gifts for those that love pampering themselves and their nails. I know I will be gifting a lot of these all throughout the year, probably to myself {just keepin’ it real} as I will not want to part with them once they arrive!

Also, Jamberry wraps are alwasy Buy 3 wrap sheets, Get 1 Free! How awesome is that? Take care of gifts for three friends and keep the free sheet for yourself 🙂 No special code needed, the freebie wrap sheet will automatically deduct from your shopping cart total.

Are you a beauty blogger and want to take the seven day challenge for yourself to review on your blog? Send me an email and let me know which nail wraps you would like to try!

Blog Disclosure: Any products reviewed in this post were purchased by me, with my own resources unless otherwise noted. All opinions are always my own and are not influenced in any way. Affiliate links may appear in this post. If you decide to purchase a product shown, and do so through one of the affiliate links, you help support this site. For more information, view my Disclosure Policy.
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Definitely cute! I rarely do anything fun with my fingernails, but I bet my daughter would love this. I’ll have to show it to her. And I bet its a lot better for your nails than the gel manicures I’ve been getting but am trying to wean myself off of.

I have had one (ONE) gel manicure in my life and after seeing what it did to my nails, I vowed to never get one again. I love the wraps since they last so long, just like the gel manicures, but did absolutely no damage to my nails!

I tried them once, but I think they were sample sizes or something. They didn’t fit right and I gave up trying to fight with them. LOL And now I think about it I don’t even know where the heck they are. I’d actually like to try them again after the holiday season to see what kind of new fun designs they have.

Great, comprehensive review! Props for going around with chipped nails to judge the wearing. I’m like you–I can’t handle a chipped mani, so way to go! You picked a great colour for the rest of your nails, too. The dark really makes the pink pop! 🙂

I have the same problem with the thumbnail size (and nail size in general). I’ve tried a few samples from Jamberry parties, and the samples that are supposedly meant to fit on the ring finger are only just big enough for my pinky. I’m afraid to buy a full seheet, since I probably won’t be able to get use out of all of them. Plus, using a hair dryer with them is a pain in the butt, though as convenient as buying the Jamberry mini heater would be, I wouldn’t want to invest in one if I wouldn’t be able to get a lot of use out of the Jamberry nails… You see my problem haha.